The Conquest of Cool

I've got some mixed feelings about this mini-profile of Ben Chang, the DJ, photographer, and accomplished foreign service officer who is the Obama administration's spokesman for the National Security Council. Obviously, I think it's a good thing for federal employees to have a multi-dimensional, decidedly non-square image. But I have doubts about the whole concept of "making government cool again." I don't know that you revitalize interest in working for the government by giving the impression that awesome people are dropping into the Obama administration for a spell (to be fair, Chang appears to be a career guy). Instead, I think you have to make clear all the things that government does--and that it's possible to accomplish within government, and build long-term interest in those jobs.